South Carolina offers phenomenal crappie fishing opportunities. From sprawling reservoirs to smaller, lesser-known lakes, anglers have plenty of options when it comes to pursuing their favorite panfish in the Palmetto State.
Both black and white crappies inhabit South Carolina waters, though black crappies are more widespread. White crappies generally favor deeper, more turbid waters, but the two species are otherwise similar in habit and habitat.
And they’re both equally likely to gobble up a lively minnow or an eye-catching soft plastic bait on a 1/16 or 1/32-ounce jig head.
Finding crappies can sometimes be tricky, but the tactics used to catch them couldn’t be simpler.
In most South Carolina crappie lakes, ample brush and timber provide prime habitat that crappies utilize in all seasons. Crappies typically spawn in late March or early April, with the potential for excellent shallow action from February through May.
Santee Cooper Lakes
Lakes Marion and Moultrie, collectively called the Santee Cooper Lakes, aren’t just the best crappie lakes in South Carolina. They’re some of the best in America, and few places anywhere produce more 2- and 3-pound crappies.
White and black crappies are both abundant in these Lowcountry impoundments. As in any lake, crappie populations can be cyclical, but a strong year class in the Santee Cooper Lakes can set the fishing on the right track for years in the future.
Anglers often think of the Santee Cooper Lakes as a single unit, and the choice between fishing 110,000-acre Lake Marion or 60,000-acre Lake Moultrie often comes down to the wind and weather conditions on any given day.
But it’s worth remembering that these are two separate lakes and don’t always fish the same.
While Lake Moultrie is often compared to a big open bowl ringed by cypress swamps, Lake Marion is more varied, with a deep main lake and a long, shallow upper end.
Both are exceptional, but your approach may need adjusting depending on which lake you fish. You can also expect crappies to be in different places at different times.
Lake Marion
Lake Marion warms up faster than Lake Moultrie, so the spring crappie fishing starts cooking a little earlier. Crappies also bite shallower in Lake Marion, whereas the best fishing is often deeper in Lake Moultrie.
There’s usually a solid period of super-shallow activity at the upper end of Lake Marion in late February, sometimes into early March. If you hit that window just right, you can easily catch your limit using a live minnow beneath a float around cypress knees.
From March into April, deeper brush piles produce better. Local guides and anglers have sunk hundreds of them throughout the lake, and most of the best ones are at 20-foot depths, with their tops reaching up to 10 or 12 feet.
The Brickyard area, Sixteen Island and Sandy Island are great areas.
Jigs often produce just as well as minnows, and any jig color with some chartreuse seems to work. Roadrunner Jigs have added flash, which helps if the water is stained.
Although the spring spawn is the most universally popular season for crappie, there’s often phenomenal fishing in fall, too. After foraging and growing all summer, fall provides consistent crappie fishing at predictable locations.
On Lake Marion, that means brush piles and woody cover at 12- to 18-foot depths, particularly along the edges of humps and channels. Once you’ve located a good brush pile, it’s simply a matter of dropping a jig or minnow to the appropriate depth.
Lake Moultrie
The period when crappies spawn in shallow water is a little later at Lake Moultrie (typically late March) and often fleetingly brief. The crappie fishing here can be tremendous virtually any time, but success requires getting comfortable with fishing deeper.
In spring, woody cover and brush ranging from 10 to 20 feet is usually best. This pattern is especially true for Lake Moultrie’s abundant white crappies, many of which never come shallow but spawn around deeper brush piles and stumps.
The SCDNR website includes an interactive map that anglers can use to find trees and brush piles “planted” by the state, but anglers have sunk countless more.
Fishing jigs and minnows around or just over the tops of brush is often highly effective, but there will be days when you have to fish very close to cover to catch the bigger crappies. Good boat control is key, and using a marker buoy to maintain your bearings is a good call.
The Blacks Camp area, near the diversion canal that connects Lake Moultrie to Lake Marion, is one of the best spots. By May, crappies will have finished spawning and headed to even deeper brush at 20 to 40 feet.
Much like Lake Marion, Lake Moultrie has a great autumn crappie bite, with consistently excellent fishing from late September to early November unless it’s disturbed by a major weather event.
Crappies stack up on brush, with the best fishing often happening at midday.
As in spring, depth is a little more of a wild card in Lake Moultrie in fall. Brush in the 18- to 25-foot range is best, but crappies may be as deep as 35 feet or as shallow as 12. Drop your minnow or jig at two-foot increments until you start getting bites.
More: Complete Guide to Fishing the Santee Cooper Lakes
Wateree Lake
If there’s any lake in South Carolina that can hold its own compared to the Santee Cooper Lakes when it comes to crappie fishing, it’s Wateree Lake. Many would argue it’s even better, both for the quality of its fishing and its approachability.
Wateree Lake is in the Midlands region of South Carolina, and it’s the last of a string of impoundments along the Catawba River. At 13,864 acres, Wateree Lake is considerably smaller and easier to pattern than the Santee Cooper Lakes.
It’s a long, narrow lake with a clearly defined river channel that meanders back and forth between its banks.
Lake Wateree also has several major creek arms. In spring, that’s where the best crappie bite will take place.
As soon as the water warms up to about 50 degrees, shallow crappie fishing kicks into high gear. That usually happens in early to mid-March, but the fishing will likely stay good through May.
But it doesn’t happen all at once. Crappie head shallow sooner at the upper end of the lake, with Wateree Creek being first to turn on.
Any of the little pockets along the lakeshore from Wateree Creek down to Taylor Creek can also be productive, and the Lake Wateree State Park area, which includes Taylor and Dutchman creeks, is outstanding.
But even within a single creek, not all crappies will be shallow at the same time. Start deep and work your way shallow early in the year, or do the opposite once the shallow bite starts.
Shallow parts of Lake Wateree and its major creeks are absolutely loaded with brush, dead trees, willows, laydowns, stumps and snags. Wading or bank fishing can be great in the state park area in April.
Crappies head deep after spawning but can still be found around brush and trees near drop-offs and creek channels. Brush in 12 to 20 feet of water can produce a lot of quality fish in fall, too.
Lake Murray
A sprawling reservoir of 48,000 acres just west of Columbia, Lake Murray is one of the best crappie lakes in the Piedmont region. It also officially produced the biggest crappie ever certified as a state record in South Carolina.
During a typical year, tremendous numbers of crappies are available, averaging ½ to ¾ pounds but commonly surpassing 2 pounds.
Areas all over the lake can be productive, and anglers who can lock into crappies’ seasonal patterns can find success in every season. The big thing to remember is that the lake’s upper and lower ends fish differently.
The upper end of Lake Murray is shallower and also a bit more stained in springtime, so the crappie bite starts earlier and typically takes place shallower.
At the deep, clear lower end of the lake, peak crappie fishing is a little bit deeper and a little bit later.
Pre-spawn here is February into March, with March being the month that most big female crappies head towards the shallows. Consistent shallow fishing is usually available throughout April, and May is when crappies head back toward deeper structure.
Early and late in the season, the best tactics are drifting and slow tight-line trolling along ledges that provide transitional areas between deep and shallow. Around 10 feet is a good average depth, give or take 5 feet depending on how close you are to the spawn.
Lake Murray has a lot of docks, too, and many have brush piles sunk nearby. “Shooting” jigs under docks with a slingshot-like cast can nab a lot of big crappies.
The area where the Saluda River and Little Saluda River arms meet is a key area at the upper end of Lake Murray, and major creeks like Twenty-Mile, Beaverdam and Bear Creek are good lower lake spots.
In summer, look for crappies around deeper brush. Brush piles placed at 20- to 25-foot depths and topping out at 10 to 15 feet are often best, with crappies typically schooling in or right above the brush.
Summer crappies may be even shallower at the upper end of Lake Murray.
More: Complete Guide to Lake Murray Fishing
Lake Greenwood
An 11,400-acre Saluda River Reservoir, Lake Greenwood lies just a few miles upriver from Lake Murray and offers similar crappie fishing opportunities on a smaller scale.
Greenwood is an outstanding black crappie lake for anyone more interested in numbers than trophy fish.
That’s not to say you won’t find slabs here. Lake Greenwood’s prolific black crappies have been noted for their impressive growth rate. This is also a lake where you can easily catch your limit outside of the prime spawn season.
In February, when crappies are just barely starting to think about pre-spawn movements, there is often excellent fishing around bridges at the upper end of the lake. Concrete pilings absorb and radiate warmth on sunny days.
Bridges also provide an easy opportunity to target solid structure at a range of depths. Try Boyds Bridge on the Saluda River Arm or the Riverfork Road Bridge on the Reedy River Arm.
The area where these two main arms meet is also a spot that concentrates pre-spawn crappies.
Vertical jigging with traditional soft plastic crappie jigs is effective in early spring, and jigging spoons can be great, too. If the bite is slow, try tipping your jigs with a minnow.
Docks, piers and boathouses are key areas once the spawn gets underway from late March through April. Floating dock complexes at Lake Greenwood’s several marinas are excellent spring crappie spots.
Fall also brings great fishing here, with crappies leaving deep summer haunts and chasing schools of baitfish to the backs of creeks across 5- to 10-foot flats.
The Rabon Creek Bridge, located at the mouth of its namesake creek on the Reedy River arm, is a perennial hotspot in both spring and fall.
Honorable Mentions
Lake Russell
One of several large Savannah River reservoirs along the Georgia state line, 26,650-acre Richerd B. Russell Reservoir—Lake Russell, as it’s more often called—offers abundant 10- to 14-inch crappies, which anglers often catch alongside spotted bass and white perch.
Whole forests of standing timber were left in place when the reservoir was built, providing exemplary crappie habitat. The trouble is, there’s so much of it that locating crappies can be a needle-in-a-haystack endeavor.
Long-line trolling is a good search tactic; start at the mouth of a creek and work your way in, following the channel edge or letting your jig tickle the tops of the timber.
Creeks like Beaverdam and Coldwater on the Georgia side are great areas, along with the Rocky River arm in South Carolina.
The biggest crappies spawn in late March, followed by smaller fish (in larger numbers) in April.
Tossing a minnow under a float close to the bank is the best bet when the spawn is going strong.
Lake Hartwell
Located above Lake Russell and fed by the Savannah and Tugaloo rivers, Lake Hartwell spans 55,900 acres and is better known for bass and stripers than crappie. But there’s a great under-the-radar crappie fishery here, especially in spring.
Long-line trolling in the creeks is a good tactic in March, as crappies are on their way shallow. By April, you can catch a lot of fish close to the banks in areas like Mt. Carmel Park and the Patterson Branch using a jig beneath a float.
In almost every season except the spawn, crappie fishing is best around brush piles and submerged trees ranging from 10 to 30 feet deep.
Tightlining over brush piles on the main lake is a good tactic; set different colored jigs at various depths to dial in the right combination.
Lake Wylie
13,443-acre Lake Wylie lies along the state line between North and South Carolina, part of a string of reservoirs on the Catawba River.
Like most great crappie lakes, it has an abundance of shallow cover like stumps, logs, docks and brush piles that attract spawning crappies in April.
Earlier in the season, crappies follow schools of baitfish around the mouths of Lake Wylie’s creeks before ultimately heading farther up into the backs of creeks to spawn. Big Allison and Little Allison creeks are arguably the best creeks on Lake Wylie.
Beaverdam and Crowder creeks also have a lot of great crappie habitat, and any of the smaller tributary mouths can also provide off-the-beaten-path crappie action.
Shooting jigs under boat docks can be very effective here, especially in winter, when crappie congregate under the deepest docks.
Lake Wylie also is one of South Carolina’s excellent catfishing lakes.
Lake Monticello
Located just north of Columbia, Lake Monticello is very much a sleeper lake when it comes to crappie fishing. This 6,659-acre reservoir is mainly known as a local fishing hole, and anglers catch some impressive slabs every spring.
A very deep lake that offers flooded timber at a wide range of depths, Lake Monticello produces a lot of 1- and 2-pound crappies during the spring spawn. Expect to look a little deeper to find them than in most lakes.
Lake Monticello is a cooling reservoir for the nearby VC Summer Nuclear Station. The immediate area around the hot water discharge is closed to boat traffic, but the southern end of the lake, in general, is usually a few degrees warmer than the rest, making it popular in winter.
Lake Secession
Another often-overlooked crappie lake, Lake Secession is a 1,450-acre reservoir on the Rocky River in western South Carolina. Named for nearby Secession Hill, the lake is loaded with stumps and timber.
And like a lot of lakes with ample stumps and timber, it’s also loaded with crappies.
This small lake warms up fairly quickly, especially at its shallow, stained upper end. You can catch a mess of crappies by jigging around shallow boat docks and brush.
It’s common practice for homeowners around the lake to put out docks and sink brush piles nearby, so you have no shortage of potential spots.
The Lake Secession Boat Ramp, adjacent to the Highway 184 bridge, is a great place to start.
Catch More Crappies
Be sure to read our complete guide to easy crappie fishing tactics and tackle.